


The High Road

by Deetvar



Category: Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones
Genre: Amnesia, F/M, Horror
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-01
Updated: 2019-02-01
Packaged: 2019-10-20 07:44:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,879
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17618339
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Deetvar/pseuds/Deetvar
Summary: Seth awakens with no memory, but things feel different than they should.





	The High Road

**Author's Note:**

  * For [MarkoftheAsphodel](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MarkoftheAsphodel/gifts).



****“Gah!”  
  
Seth rose from his bed, the brim of his tunic collar was drenched in sweat. Huffing with fear, vague formations of shapes ran through his mind. He finds himself in a room...but not his room.   
  
He searches the room, he finds everything as it should if it were his own. His clothes stacked neatly away, a spacious wall with his main sets of weapons and armor, and personal belonging in a small chest beneath his bed.

Seth knew by its structure that this was his room. Yet it felt so alien, he felt a pervasive sense of claustrophobia encroach into his heart. The air felt hot and stuffy.

He suited up and quickly left his room to find himself in a hallway entirely foreign to him.

From the distance, he saw a soldier clad in Grado uniform approach him. Seth fixated on his hands, for reasons unknown to him a breath of ease came over him. The fear of walls trapping him loosened, but still present.

“General Seth, Prince Lyon requests your presence.”

_Lyon_.

The name seemed to active a primal fear in him, a sensation came over his legs. He didn’t understand why but he felt the need to run. His heart began to pound heavily, every moment felt to span a thrice as long. He reasoned to himself this perhaps is nothing more than some lingering fright from his nightmare.

“I understand. Could you please escort me? I seem..to be under the weather.”

Seth didn't know what was happening, nor where he was. By all appearances he was in Grado, but why?  
  
The soldier did as Seth had asked him to. Seth entered the room to see Prince Lyon sitting in front of a study desk. Standing in Lyon’s presence were the three generals of Grado, and right beside him was Princess Eirika. Seth’s heart skipped a beat, and a swelling fear overcame him. Her appearance was different than he recalled, for an aura of wildness was present in her hair.   
  
Seth took notice of Selena titling her his head his way. The way her eye was raised look to be disapproving. “My apologies for my tardiness, Prince Lyon.”   
  
“It’s quite alright Seth, glad for you to join us nonetheless. Besides, there are more important matters to discuss.”   
  
Lyon turned his head lightly to Eirika. She gave an approving nod. “My father is...gravely ill. If the royal physician is to be believed, he has...half a year to live.”   
  
Everyone’s faces turned grim, Lyon’s especially. Seth took notice that Eirika’s right hand gently rubbed Lyon’s shoulder as if almost patting him. It sank his spirits.   
  
Lyon’s face began to turn away. The other general took notice but stayed silent. “Keep this information to yourselves. As my Lord Father’s most trusted confidants, I felt you deserved to know as much.” Eirika spoke, her hand still tenderly comforting Lyon.   
  
“We must keep our due diligence, Emperor Vigarde has expressed to not to give the impression his strength is failing.”   
  
Seth looked toward Lyon, he looked to be on the verge of tears.   
  
“You’re all dismissed.”   
  
Seth left the room along with his “comrades.” They spoke their fears but throughout the entire time, Selena made passive glances at Seth. Her green eyes pierced through his distraught as if he was graced by an angel.   
  
Once all the pleasantries had been dealt with, Selena approached Seth. Just a tad shorter than he was, she tiptoed and placed her lips lightly on Seth’s cheek.  Her approach was without hesitation. Seth did his best to stay calm but his eyes betrayed him, wide-eyed and filled with confusion.   
  
“Seth, are you alright?” Selena placed her hand above Seth’s temple. “You’re a bit warm...what’s wrong?”   
  
Her eyes, a source of light in this otherwise dreary hallway. Seth could only stutter. “I...I’m afraid...the news has taken a toll on me.”   
  
“I could say the same. But it would betray our Emperor to look so melancholy. I pray he recovers soon.” Selena spoke with an almost serene voice. She patted his head. “Get some rest. I’m a bit worried about you.”   
  
“Come now, you know it not like us to rest there is so much to be done.” Seth shuddered at his own words. They came out his mouth, as if by instinct. He did not will these words, nor did he feel compelled to say them   
  
The next few days were fairly unassuming. Seth had surmised he is Lady Eirika’s personal knight, not on the same level of authority as he was in Renais but his reputation gave him a fair amount of freedom. He had no true formal duties aside from attending to whatever Lady Eirika wished of him, or on occasion training new recruits.   
  
Despite the complete lack of memories, Seth felt at ease. He has no recollection coming to Grado, or Lady Eirika’s marriage to Prince Lyon. Perhaps most surprising of all he had taken to court the Fluorspar. It didn’t seem to be formal, but it was clear Selena felt some affection for Seth. Whatever he did before his memory failed, it was clear he returned those feelings. Selena was an impeccable mage knight, the one of greatest he has ever seen; pleasant, sweet, and beautiful. Yet whenever she made a glance at him, Seth felt greatly uncomfortable. He did his best to maintain his distance but he never once ignored Selena's affections. He prayed he had the strength to voice his troubles.   
  
On the fourth day, Lyon made his way into another meeting. Lady Eirika by his side, he seemed more confident. He declared he would seek out all means to remedy his father’s ailment. Impassioned no doubt by his wife’s words, but he carried a sense of dread in him. His shadow almost turned into a shade of purple, cracked and with horns. Seth mused to himself that he simply imagined it.

By the tenth day, unsettling news came. A young cleric came into the palace to declare that the High Priest of Grado had turned ill and died overnight. Natasha was her name, a student of Father McGregor, the very same High Priest. Acting almost in concert Lyon had appeared and declared that the Crown of Grado would help in all affairs of the Church until such time a successor for Father McGregor can be made.

Later that day Lady Eirika spoke with him. She appeared distressed, hair in disarray and her pupils wide open.

“Seth, might I ask you something?”

“Yes, my lady. What troubles you?”

“Lyon has become...distant.” Seth could see the embarrassment in her eyes. “I don't know anyone else...well enough to talk to about this.”

Is she asking for advice on love? Seth felt a massive tension in his chest, and if an invisible hand was squishing his heart. “I'm afraid I can't be much help..”

“I had hoped...you would have more experience on the matter, especially as of late.” Disappointed, she began to talk away. “Thank you, Seth.”

Seth gripped his hand in frustration. He didn't know how to help Lady Eirika. He wanted to see her smile, ever so radiant and contagious. Yet there was the matter of Lyon. He possessed an almost ghastly aura, each day his color was paler. As if he were a painting saturated and cracking in sunlight.

“Eirika!” He brisked toward her.

She raised her head up to meet his eyes. “Seth?”

“Talk to him. Look him in the eyes and speak truthfully. Voice all your grievances. Honesty and communication are paramount.”  
  
Eirika nodded and went on her way.   
  
On the thirteenth day, things started to take a stranger direction. The distressed Eirika he recalled before was gone. In the practice yard, she mounted herself on a horse with a tome in hand. A dark tome. Selena had recommended the use of anima but Lady Eirika persisted with her choice.   
  
Seth kept notice of her hair, shades darker than he recalled. Her hair was wild and flowed in the wind, it seemed that strands of hair floated on their own. He watched them practice another until a slight mishap caused a portion of the castle wall to crack.   
  
“My apologies, General. I...uh..seem to have been overzealous in my abilities.”

Selena stopped what she did and looked over the wall. “It seems stable enough. I'll have a stonemason come and repair it. Pay it no mind.”

By day's end, a piece of the wall fell to the ground. Everyone present said it sounded like a bell, but Selena said to pay it no mind.

A month passed by and Emperor Vigarde made his first appearance to Seth. Circles underneath his eyes and hair rashly combed, but Seth smelled heavy fragrances of fruits and flowers coming from Emperor Vigarde. His skin was looked stiff, the way he walked look automatic; like clockwork motions. The whites in his eyes were drier and his hair seemed to have receded back. He looked liked he was prepared for cremation.

Two more weeks had passed and nothing seemed the same. The cracked wall had been left unattended and now moss had begun to grow on the rubble. Lyon and Eirika had become secluded together. The times they did appear, Eirika began to less like herself.   
  
Her hair turned unkempt, and her eyes were almost transfixed on a singular purpose. No longer were the warm eyes that greeted him whenever they met. Selena took notice of Eirika racing toward the Grado Royal Libraries, Seth ran to chase after her.   
  
Selena grabbed onto Seth’s arm. “Seth...wait!”   
  
Trying to let go of his hold against her, Seth met her face to face. “Selena please, something is not right.”   
  
Selena looked straight into Seth’s eyes. “I’ve been patient, Seth. You know something. Don’t you? The way you hesitate to look at Prince Lyon and Lady Eirika together. Your eyes and chin show disgust at sight of Emperor Vigarde.”   
  
Seth was taken aback at her observations. He held his hand on her shoulders. “I’m sorry, Selena. I wish I could answer your questions, but I don’t know where to begin.”   
  
From afar they could hear an echo come down the hall...a ghastly smell of rot and waste. “Seth? Do you hear that?”   
  
They made their way down to the Royal Laboratory. The hallway before, the smell intensified. Peaking out from the corner of the hall, they saw Lady Eirika and Prince Lyon jovially talking beside with some grotesque...thing.   
  
“Sit.”   
  
The creature sat.   
  
“Up.”   
  
It did as commanded.   
  
Eirika stroked Lyon’s hair. “Is it enough?”   
  
Pressing his hand against his chin. “Perhaps others would be needed.”   
  
They saw all these needed to. Selena and Seth raced back to the bright light of the sun on the main floor. “We need to put a stop to this.”   
  
“And what? Treason?”   
  
Seth held his lance up high. “And allow that _Thing_ to exist?”   
  
“I don’t like it either, but we can’t act rashly either. We must bide our-”   
  
Seth interjected. “We need to act now, this can-”   
  
They heard coming footsteps to their direction. It was Prince Lyon and Lady Eirika.   
  
“We have new assignments for the both of you. Best of luck.” They said in unison.


End file.
